News in short

• The Microsoft 365 outage began on November 12, 2026, and disrupted users across multiple regions.
• Outlook and Exchange Online faced mailbox access and email delivery problems.
• Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft 365 Copilot and other connected services also reported disruptions.
• Microsoft traced the issue to unstable servers and an overwhelmed process handling secure connections.
• The latest updates point to improving server stability, but Microsoft has not confirmed a complete restoration.

Microsoft is working to restore services after a widespread Microsoft 365 outage disrupted businesses and individual users across the world. The disruption began on November 12 and continued into November 13, affecting Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other services connected to the company’s cloud infrastructure.

The incident matters because many Microsoft apps share infrastructure. A problem affecting Exchange Online, the company’s hosted email platform, can also disrupt features in other products that rely on email, calendars or work data.

What caused the Microsoft 365 outage?

Microsoft’s investigation found that part of its infrastructure experienced elevated server load across multiple regions. Some servers failed automated health checks and became unavailable. Traffic then shifted to the remaining infrastructure, increasing pressure on those servers.

The company later identified a process responsible for establishing secure connections that became overwhelmed. This caused affected servers to stop responding to requests. Microsoft has also been examining a recent network configuration change that correlated with the start of the disruption.

Microsoft has not published a final root-cause analysis. It has said it is not aware of malicious activity causing the incident. The company plans to share a detailed post-incident report after mitigation.

Which Microsoft services were affected?

Exchange Online and Outlook were among the most visible services affected. Some users could not open mailboxes through Outlook on the web or desktop apps. Others experienced delayed email delivery or connection failures.

The disruption also affected Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Defender XDR, Planner, To Do, Intune and parts of Microsoft Purview. The impact varied by feature. For example, Teams functions that depend on Exchange Online faced problems, while core messaging and online meetings were reported to remain largely functional in some cases.

Microsoft’s incident notices also warned that some SharePoint features linked to Exchange Online could fail, even when direct access to stored files remained available. Copilot Chat and features that retrieve work data could also be affected.

Microsoft outage latest update: Is Outlook and Teams working again?

Microsoft’s latest reported recovery step involved an upstream authentication and routing configuration patch. The company said it was seeing positive results for server stability on the infrastructure where it applied the patch. It planned to expand the fix systematically while monitoring performance.

Subsequent reporting from the Associated Press said recovery was progressing across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Email queues were moving closer to normal levels, although some users continued to report intermittent access problems and delayed messages. Microsoft has not provided a confirmed time for full restoration.

For the latest incident status, users can check Microsoft’s official Service Health Status page. Business administrators can also look for incident references MO1550821 and EX1550543 in the Microsoft 365 admin centre.

What should Microsoft 365 users do?

Users should check Microsoft’s status page before repeatedly changing account settings or reinstalling apps. If Outlook is unavailable, they can try another supported access method once service health improves. However, repeated sign-ins may not solve a server-side issue.

Businesses should keep alternative communication channels available until their services return to normal. They should also verify whether delayed emails, calendar updates and automated workflows have completed after access resumes.

The outage is another reminder that organisations need continuity plans for cloud services. Our earlier report on the AWS outage and its impact on online services explains how problems at a major cloud provider can affect applications well beyond one product.

Update note: This report reflects the latest publicly available status information reviewed on November 13, 2026. Service availability can change as Microsoft continues its recovery work.